The Price We Pay
by Catlover friendly-but-xplosive
Summary: Each Avengers pays a price for their powers; six minifics detailing that price. Warning: minor reference to rape.


_**A/N:** Written for an avengerskink prompt asking for each Avenger to pay a price for their abilities. Reviews loved :D_

**The Price We Pay**

**Bruce**

Bruce Banner used to be a normal man- intelligent, likeable, fun to be around. One day Betty staggered home clutching her dress and he rushed to catch her. She'd been crying, and flinched from his touch.

At that moment, he decided he was also powerless. He wanted to protect those he loved. He made a deal.

He would gain the power to protect the ones he loved. But there was a price. He thought of Betty's tear stained face and agreed to any price.

Even now, when he was always angry and when he lost his temper he turned big and green, he didn't think it was a mistake.

**Thor**

Thor had always liked storms; as a boy he would watch them, fascinated, until his mother pulled him in. His little brother Loki never saw the appeal of storms, hated being dirty and wet, but Thor loved them. His mother was afraid he'd get electrocuted.

As he grew older, he became ambitious and vain. He would comb his long hair every morning, train for hours to impress girls, brush off Loki as he tagged along behind him, practically worshiping the ground he walked on. But he loved his brother; in private they spent hours playing together, laughing together, fighting together. When the chance came to have even greater power, he leapt at it, despite the ominous clause: _you will lose what is most precious to you_.

He boasted to Loki about his new power, that he could control lightning and thunder, and his eyes darkened.

"Have fun, brother," he said sourly as he turned away. Never did Thor see his adoring eyes again, and he took a long time to miss them. Finally he had his own space; Loki wasn't pestering him while he was with his friends anymore.

It wasn't until Loki went off the rails and nothing Thor said or did, no amount of pleading or force or tears could bring him back, that he remembered the price he had paid for his power: you will lose what is most precious to you.

**Clint**

Clint had always liked the outdoors. He'd listen to birds for hours, lie in the warm sun until his mother called him inside. The house was oppressive and dark. He didn't like it. Nothing he did ever impressed his parents, though he tried. So he took refuge in the bright sun, amongst the chirping birds, and tried to forget all that.

The orphanage didn't look kindly on his jaunts. He didn't care. His punishment was always to stay inside, but the high windows weren't high enough to keep Clint Barton indoors. The sisters despaired over him when he struggled to read the hymns and verses they put before him, and he tried not to feel despair at that, at the mirror of his father's words: _useless boy!_

Circus life was hard, spent mucking out stables and being ordered around. He tried to get higher up and do better things but no one ever paid attention to him. Desperate, he made a deal: he wanted to be good at something. His hand eye coordination was the gift he received, the gift which got him into Trickshot's good books.

He would never hear a birdsong without a hearing aid again.

**Natasha**

Natasha was young, had lost her family and was in unfamiliar, scary surroundings. She could not stop crying, and the men and women looked down on her and punished her for it, but she couldn't help it. She was so scared, hurt so much.

"Make it stop hurting," she begged one night during her punishment for crying. "Please."

She was given her wish: she lost the ability to care. Her career was illustrious after that, her bodycount mounting, and when people asked her why she did this, she gave them a completely honest answer which shattered them:

"I don't care."

They didn't realise how much it shattered her to see the emptiness inside herself.

When she stared up at Clint Barton down the length of his arrow, she laughed.

**Steve**

Steve was a weedy, scrawny boy, but he had a strong sense of honour. He could not stand by and watch injustices, but could not stop them, and so Bucky had to help him home bruised and limping most nights.

"Don't do this, Steve," he pleaded at first, but Steve ignored him.

"I have to, Bucky," he said.

The deal came to him in his dreams after years of being thrown to the ground, when he had a new rejection in his pocket. I can give you the strength to protect those you love, for a price. He accepted without thought and woke up strong and healthy. He reenlisted and was accepted. He was willing to pay any price.

When he woke up seventy years later, all those he loved gone along with the world he knew, he was devastated. He'd lost everything he'd sought to protect.

**Tony**

Tony grew up a lonely rich kid. A genius, but his father never paid his inventions any attention. His mother was too busy being a socialite to pay attention to him. Only the butler, Jarvis, praised his inventions and told him what to do, and as much as he made out to hate it, he was thrilled that someone cared enough to tell him what to do.

When Jarvis died, Tony was devastated, and alone. He turned to Obidiah, his father's business partner, and Obidiah, who he called Obie, was more than willing to lavish attention on him. He knew it was just to keep power when he took over, but didn't care. He drank, took girls home, took boys home in attempts to find validation.

In a cave in Afghanistan, dying, hooked up to a car battery, he prayed for the first time since he was a child, and thought he was hallucinating when someone actually answered.

_I can get you out_, a voice said. _I can get you attention. But it'll cost you._ He agreed, desperate to escape, to be validated, and the pieces of his knowledge suddenly flowed together to form the arc reactor and Iron Man suit. He got his attention, but the price came later.

Dying of palladium poisoning he reflected on this deal, and thought it was probably a bad one. While he had survived, he'd lost everyone who cared about him. Obie had tried to kill him, Pepper had cut all contact except what was needed to run the company, Happy had left his employ and Rhodey wasn't willing to forgive him for attacking him.

He had attention; the whole world was watching him now. But it all felt so empty.


End file.
